[Source: Reuters]

Crystal Palace outplayed Aston Villa as they soared into the FA Cup final for only the third time with two brilliant goals by Ismaila Sarr and a stunner by Eberechi Eze sealing a 3-0 victory in an entertaining clash at Wembley on Saturday.

Palace’s fans, dreaming of a first major trophy in the south London club’s 119-year history, cranked up the volume from the first minute and were rewarded in thrilling fashion as the Eagles moved one win away from delivering silverware.

England forward Eze put Palace ahead in the 31st minute with a sweetly-struck right-foot shot from just outside the penalty area after being picked out by the irrepressible Sarr.

Tyrick Mitchell spurned a glorious chance to make it 2-0 just before halftime and when Jean-Phillipe Mateta blazed a penalty wide shortly after the restart Palace might have feared they would be made to pay by their Premier League rivals.

But lacklustre Villa could not cope with Palace’s relentless energy and Sarr then sent a long-range low drive past Emiliano Martinez just before the hour to put his side firmly in control.

The Palace party was already in full swing when Sarr burst clear in stoppage time to finish in style.

Palace lost in the 1990 and 2016 finals, both to Manchester United, and wil hope to make it third time lucky on May 17 against either Manchester City or Nottingham Forest, who meet in the second semi-final back at Wembley on Sunday.

Less than a fortnight ago Villa bowed out of the Champions League in a blaze of glory as they beat Paris St Germain 3-2 at Villa Park only to lose 5-4 on aggregate but this time slunk out of Wembley looking crestfallen.

Defeat by Palace will sting more as their were genuine hopes that Villa could win their first FA Cup since 1957 and a first trophy since 1996. In reality they were demolished by a far hungrier Palace side who also knocked them out of this year’s League Cup and took four points off them in the league.

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